Here's another secret of successful genealogists: They're organized. You won't get far if you can't find your research notebook and charts!

Of course, getting—and keeping—your research in order is a challenge for even the tidiest family historian. So, in the April 2002 issue of Family Tree Magazine, we kicked off a contest to help paper-plagued genealogists. Readers were invited to send tales and photos of their family history-filing disasters—the three most convincing would win some much-needed expert organizational assistance.